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Nation needs statesmen not corrupt political hacks

I sat across from the IRS agent and looked deep into his steely stare. Peering into those cold, heartless eyes, I saw his soul, and I thought to myself, "This man is so clueless, he would trip over a cordless telephone." Our government is so frustrating now, if I saw someone from the fed on fire...

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I sat across from the IRS agent and looked deep into his steely stare. Peering into those cold, heartless eyes, I saw his soul, and I thought to myself, "This man is so clueless, he would trip over a cordless telephone." Our government is so frustrating now, if I saw someone from the fed on fire and I had water, I would probably drink it.

If I want to get frustrated with the government however, I don't really need to look at the IRS scandal, or any of the myriad of daily new scandals going on. I only need to look at what the VA, just one of the giant bureaucracies, has done to my fellow disabled combat veterans and me ever since Barack Obama has become president. I was a 90 percent disabled Vietnam veteran and several years ago was contacted by a Washington, D.C., law firm, Chisolm, Chisolm, and Kilpatrick, which is connected with the DAV. They had reviewed my latest VA decision and said that the VA was wrong, and I should have been getting 100 percent disability dating all the way back to 1996. They filed suit on my behalf, and after the VA's extended stalling tactics failed, and they finally had to go to court against us, a federal judge totally agreed with my attorneys. I won the case. The VA then stalled again right up to the cut-off date and appealed the decision. The federal appeals judge also agreed with my attorney's case, and we won the appeal, also.

Anybody and any entity in America would respect the power of a federal court and a federal appeals court, but not Obama's henchmen. The VA did not care. They were supposed to re-adjudicate my decision, and instead in their gross arrogance, they simply reduced my compensation back to 80 percent disability from 90. So now, as unfair as it is, my attorneys have had to file a third suit against the VA even though we have already won twice in federal court, and the VA is stalling again. What is very ironic was that I was the national deputy executive director of Veterans for Romney in the recent presidential election and a conservative editorialist for years. What a coincidence! And, what a convenience for a corrupt, intrusive government that snoops into our private lives, our emails, our phone conversations, wants to monitor and confiscate our weapons, and uses measures to spy on us that were originally meant to be used to spy only on terrorists.

I volunteered for duty in Vietnam in 1968-1969 and served honorably as an officer in the U.S. Army Special Forces and have two sons doing the very same now. I am very proud of that and feel we deserve the right to live our lives in quiet dignity and enjoy the freedoms this nation has to offer without fear of political recrimination, privacy invasion, or any federal subjugation. But guess what? Those rights are also reserved for the non-veteran janitor who cannot write editorials, the homeless chap, or the single mother on public assistance. This is the land of freedom, not a collective concentration camp controlled by congressional corruption, nor is it the place for partisan Presidential payback and punishment.

The people in the IRS, congress, the White House, and giant government bureaucracies who affect our lives and frustrate us to no end are actually as useful as an ashtray on a Harley Davidson. Our nation needs no more politicos or bureaucrats in Washington. We need some more John Waynes, not a bunch of John Wayne Gacys who cannibalize the innocent and unwary.

Next year is not far away and is a time for big change, a turn back to America, the Land of the Free. We must identify the scoundrels in both parties and kick their sorry butts to the curb. We must only vote for those who have actually read and believe in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and do not want to hide God in a closet of political-correctness.

We need to return to conservatism and put Big Brother on a crash diet.

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Don Bendell is a best-selling author, a disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the
International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. He owns a ranch in southern Colorado.